[caption id="attachment_851" align="alignnone" width="471"] Photo courtesy of Mount Mercy College Sports Information DepartmentMount Mercy College’s Makenzie Zeitler is just the second player in school history to post 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds. The senior was an all-state player at Van Buren High School.[/caption]
Zeitler presses on in basketball, joins exclusive club at Mount Mercy.
By CHAD DRURY
cdrury@thehawkeye.com
CEDAR RAPIDS — Makenzie Zeitler is like most other college basketball players in that she’ll always remember her Senior Night game.
Then again, it almost never got to that point.
There was a time, two years ago, when the Mount Mercy College guard and former Van Buren High School all-stater just looked at the jersey, and wondered if the grueling athlete life was for her. Balky knees didn’t help make the decision easier.
“It became a huge burden, because when you’re a college athlete, it’s almost a full-time job,” said Zeitler, whose historic career is wrapping up with the Mustangs. “You don’t experience college like everyone else. I had to get tougher. I would talk to my dad (Van Buren coach Matt Zeitler), and it was tough. I really just felt lost.”
Two years later, she couldn’t be more thankful she saw it through. As she’s gotten older, her game has taken off. She’s the same hard-nosed player she was in high school, only she’s had to intensify the work ethic. And on Senior Night, she joined the school’s 1,000-point, 1,000-rebound club, becoming just the second player in school history to accomplish that feat.
Yet, as she looks back on her career, she was offered no promises. The Mustangs needed someone who could rebound and bring the ball up the floor, and the 5-foot-8 guard could do those with ease. The 3-point shooting and excellent free-throw shooting always were parts of her game, but they only became a factor as her role increased.
“Rebounding has been my biggest thing, ever since I was a freshman,” Zeitler said. “I knew the 1,000 points were coming, and that was a really big deal.”
She needed 18 points against Governors State (Ill.) on Feb. 14 to join Jane Meyer (1978-82) as the only two players in the the 1,000-1,000 club. It didn’t come easily. It was obvious her teammates were trying to get her the ball, Zeitler said, but there were also turnovers in trying too hard. She finally joined the club on a basket with just under six minutes left in the game.
“I’d gotten in some foul trouble, but my teammates did everything they could to get me there,” Zeitler said. “We were playing well, up by 20 or so. I’d missed a wide-open layup to get there. My coach (interim Bob Kintzel) pulled me off to the side and said, ‘You have one minute to get this or I’m taking you out of the game.’ Once I got it, the crowd went wild.”
However, it was a special moment for her family. Some had watched her get her 1,000th career rebound at St. Ambrose, but they showed up in full force for the second half of the milestone.
“I went into the locker room and just thanked all my teammates,” Zeitler said. “But for my family to see the game, it was awesome.”
Basketball has been in Zeitler’s blood for years. She was one of the best small-school guards in the state, and double-doubles almost came naturally. She was the All-Hawk Eye Player of the Year in 2012, and is closing in on Mount Mercy’s career rebounding record.
She’s as versatile as they come, burying more than 80 threes in her career and shooting almost 79 percent from the free-throw line for her career. She has grabbed 19 rebounds in a game twice, and the total is the second-most in a game in school history. She’s had a game with eight steals.
Clearly, the style of game she played in high school has translated to college.
“I have to admit I was a little nervous about how that would work out,” she said. “I used to just be able to bull past people to get to the basket, but my game has had to change. The rebounding is all effort, and there are a lot of junk points to be had if you can get those. This year, they look to me to score, and that’s helped a lot.”
The Mustangs are in their first year in the Association of Independent Institutions, which evolved after the dissolution of the Midwest Collegiate Conference. Zeitler said playing against different teams has been an advantage. With a strong showing in the conference tournament this weekend, the Mustangs could snag an automatic berth in the NAIA Division II national tournament in Sioux City.
“A lot of schools had no idea who we were, so you could go out and play and they wouldn’t know what to do,” she said of the new league. “We’ve won a lot of games, but lost some close road games.”
And yet, it almost never happened. She almost turned around and drove back to Douds, with an uncertain future in tow. Even that triple-major including business and pre-law that she’s working toward were almost shoved to the back burner.
“I was playing out of position here, and that was frustrating,” Zeitler said of the early part of her career. “I’ve always had trouble with my knees, and I would have to sit out, which was the worst thing I’ve ever had to do. Really, I was almost at a breaking point. But I stared at the jersey with (All-American Amanda Frost) and she told me she didn’t want to play without me. That’s when I started to suck it up and get after it.
“Four years, all the nights working on my game, lifting,” she said. “...It’s paid off for me, but it’s not for everyone.”